I put the linemen testing all 3 linemen units that can be amassed versus a comparable army size made entirely of melee infantry with similar costs (like the koyota police being only a little gold from regular line infantry) and I found that the linemen either broke the melee witjh their volly or they were carved up in melee by the surviving melee. In my tests I did individual units, small armies (5 linemen) and a larger army (13 line, 1 general 6 armstrung guns) and in those fights with the linemen spred into a 2 man thick line, using kneel fire some tests using suppresive fire and other times not. I am playing Fall of the samurai and have noticed my line infantry are incredibly weak, I did a few test custom battles earlier today and it seemed that the line infantry either routed the enemy before melee or got absolutely shredded. For context I come mostly from empire total war, a game where line infantry were viable from when you unlock them to the end of the game, my army in empire was 14 line infantry, 3 foot howitzer and 3 foot artillery with the arty put one of each near the left flank, right flank and centre.
